Just as it should be
by Bayseaside
Summary: 'Nothing with them was straight forward of course.' After JE, The Doctor and Rose Tyler have their lives to lead. Day after day, the one adventure they never expected to have. TenToo/Rose


**Hello! This is my first story in about 3 years, so be kind. It came to me on the walk to work and wouldn't leave me alone, so here we are. If I feel kind, I might write more soon, we'll see. Review and we may have a deal.**

 **T for swearin' and sexy times. Obvs, I don't own DW or BBC.**

* * *

Nothing with them was straight forward of course. From the day they were left on the beach, there was hurdle after hurdle to overcome. At the beginning, they started day by day, coping with hand holds and comforting words. After all they'd both lost so much. The life they had expected to live together had vanished into mid air, quite literally. Suddenly the slow life stretched before them. And although there was the new found _kissing_ (which really was, in both of their opinions, bloody brilliant) it wasn't easy.

So much had happened during the time they had spent apart, and they both had changed.

He was more erratic, less wise and perhaps (in her opinion) just a little too human. It was like suddenly a scale had been shifted and everything had become unbalanced. So very almost the same, and then also so very not.

She was less erratic, more wise and perhaps (in his opinion) a little less human. The time she had spent falling through universes, witnessing terrible and twisted alternative realities had made her into someone who was quite different from his pink and yellow human he had left on that beach all those years ago.

* * *

At first they were so glad to be with one another, they let things slip, neither said much beyond _'Oh I missed you'_ and ' _Keep talkin', please'_ , but then reality hit and things became oh so real. They had never truly argued while he has been in this form when they first started travelling together, but they started now.

Her Mum held her while she sobbed some nights and promised things would get better, but she struggled to believe it. How could he have been happy to leave her again? Why had he changed into this new man when she _needed_ her wonderful alien?

But, she knew it wasn't his fault, and they spent more time in each other's arms apologising than fighting but for the first time since they had known each other,a lot went spoken and both of them shouted in those first few months.

He felt trapped, and maybe in a way he blamed her. Of course, he'd rather be with her than anyone else in the universe, even his TARDIS, but the slow life had never felt so painful, stretching day after day in endless monotony. He never would have left, and neither would have she but neither were happy, for a time.

It took several bottles of white wine (mainly drunk by her) and a small bottle of tequila (mainly drunk by him) for them to figure out how to talk to each other. Like adults. Because like it or not, they were not. Much to both their horror. It took standing still for once to realise they had growing up to do.

That night they sat and drank and she cried and he definitely totally did not cry because he would never do such a thing, but then they realised that they were missing out. On learning about each other. About finding out how their new great adventure could go. One they realised they had turned their nose up at. They didn't really stop after that, throwing themselves with gusto in a life that they were not better than, but instead they tried to just be brilliant at what they had, like the rest of the planet.

* * *

And once they realised the slow path included being in bed together _finally, it_ was really very very fun indeed. That night they worked up enough courage (most of it Dutch) to figure out what made them human and fell into each other's bodies. It wasn't perfect, and it was hot and sticky but it was so very them and brilliant and oh so _very_ human. For the first time since that day on the beach, they said those three words whispered in each other's ears. Eyes locks, bodies moved and suddenly, the slow path really didn't seem so bad.

They really were remarkable together from then on. From UNIT where they poured themselves into their work. He, a scientific advisor and she, his assistant. All the while, quietly cultivating their TARDIS in the very top of Big Ben (he thought it was a hilarious place for a lab, she thought it was ridiculous and he was compensating for something) They decided if they were given the slow life, they were going to at least shape in to their liking. So, they sucked it up, took their jobs and planned for the stars, one day.

* * *

And then there were bumps along the way. Like, actual real-life bumps. They didn't plan for it, but when you're throwing yourself with reckless abandon into being a human at every spare moment, what did they expect? They were naïve about that, and when they finally realised, really bloody terrified.

She fretted, because how long could he stand this? Domestic at its most extreme and no more adventures, not even with bloody UNIT. This glued them down to planet earth for the next god knows how long and, that scared her too.

He fretted, because children are terrifying.

But again, like everything, they managed and although they were not in the slightest bit conventional, and essentially clueless, they managed to somehow raise their little alien baby.

Not to say they didn't experience some small hiccups. Like the time he left the baby unsupervised with the growing TARDIS coral (This is not to be chewed under any circumstances, he discovered)

And the time she tried to do alien negotiations with the baby and ended up accidently declaring the baby as new emperor of another planet (Luckily the aliens in question were very understanding and agreed this was probably too much responsibility for a 7-month-old)

* * *

But ultimately, they were a family, and a team. Admittedly they missed every parent's day and embarrassed their poor long-suffering daughter more times than they cared to admit, but it never mattered. Not once did they regret a single thing about the life they carved out for themselves.

Because it was The Doctor and Rose Tyler.

Just as it should be.


End file.
